Chapter 148 - Let's Show this Bitch

Chapter 148 - Let's Show this Bitch
Chapter 46 - Let's Show This Bitch

Nyxaria POV

The feast had been beautiful. Lanterns floating in the rafters, magic glittering in lazy spirals, and the smell of roasted meat and sweet spice was thick in the air. For a moment, for one moment, it felt like Aetheros was whole again.

Then Alpha Draven stood.

His voice rolled through the Great Hall like thunder, calm but carved from iron.

“Elowen Skye Thorne, my daughter in all but blood, and her bonded mates… have fully ascended.”

Gasps. Shouts. A chair scraped violently. Someone sobbed.

“They are gods now,” he continued. “And they will remain in the divine realm.”

The hall erupted. Rage, grief, and disbelief… all slamming together like waves in a storm. Lyrielle’s fingers trembled against mine. Rhaen’s wolf rumbled low behind me. Lucen’s hand brushed the small of my back like he needed to feel I was real.

Alpha Draven raised a hand, and the room fell silent.

“Her children will stand now. All of them.”

His voice shook the banners on the walls.

“There will be a Trial of the Crown. They will compete for the right to rule Aetheros, as is their birthright.”

Immediately, the objections flew.

“That’s ludicrous!”
“Why them?”
“Our children deserve a chance..”
“They are too young!”

Lyrielle nudged me hard. “Nyx… something’s off.”

I scanned the crowd. My dragon lifted her head inside me, her scales bristling.

"Something is wrong," Vhalra hissed. "Something sour."

I whispered toward Rhaen, “Keep Lyri close. Something is about to hit the fan.”

He nodded once, his eyes already flashing gold. I didn’t get to warn Lucen. Because the lights went out.

Screams exploded instantly. A hundred voices. A crush of bodies. Chairs toppled. Something shattered.

Then...Alpha Draven’s roar shook the entire hall.

“EVERYONE STAY STILL!”

I grabbed Lyrielle’s hand. Lucen slammed into my side, shielding me with his body. Rhaen wrapped his arm around Lyrielle’s waist. Two new auras pressed in tighy, Rykard’s lion dominance and Elion’s fox warmth.

We formed a circle without thinking. The lights snapped back on. Chaos.

Parents were pushed to the walls. Children were herded behind tables. Magic sparked through the air like stray lightning.

And in the middle of it...Taya Verric was on her knees.

Bound.

Gagged with a spell that shimmered green and red, cutting into her skin. A blade of enchanted moon-iron was pressed to her throat.

Lyrielle screamed, a raw, feral sound.

“NO!”

The woman holding the knife stepped forward. She had black hair. Sharp features. A cruel smile dripping poison.

“Well, well,” she said sweetly. “Look at the royal fucking brats. Already shaking like pups.”

Rage ignited in my veins.

“Who the fuck are you?” I snarled.

Alpha Draven lunged forward, magic crackling off him in violent waves. “Release her. Now.”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” the woman crooned. “We will not allow another Thorne monarchy to rise. We will not watch your precious brats rule Aetheros again while our children rot in their shadows.”

Her people, eight fae parents, all with dark sigils burned into their skin, formed a ring around her. All armed. All shaking with rage and fanaticism.

Behind me, Rylen’s bones cracked. He shifted.

Full beta wolf, his eyes blazing. Mae shifted next, snapping at the air, her wolf bright gold. Rowan followed, young and powerful, trembling with fury.

“Nyx,” Lyrielle whispered, her voice thin. “What do we do?”

My heart hammered. It wasn’t just fear. It was memory. My mother’s voice in my bones. Her lessons. Her calm in chaos.

Vhalra wrapped around my thoughts like water.
"Think, Nyx. Not with fire. With truth."

I swallowed, forcing breath into my lungs as more weapons rose, more growls built, and more magic surged.

If we shifted now, we’d trigger a massacre. If we attacked, Taya died first.

If we hesitated…Chaos... Absolute chaos. So I asked myself one question.

What would Mom do?

She wouldn’t roar. She wouldn’t strike first.

She would cut the world in half with her voice and make it listen.

I stepped forward with my heart pounding, and magic building under my skin.

“ENOUGH!” I screamed.

Every head snapped toward me. Even the woman with the knife blinked. Even Alpha Draven froze, mid-shift.

Even the gods, if they were watching, might’ve paused. My heart thudded painfully, but my voice didn’t shake.

“Taya Verric is our family. Hurt her, and you will never walk out of this hall alive.”

Magic pulsed through my words, unintentional but unstoppable. My dragon howled approval.

I lifted my chin.

“You have one chance to put the knife down and walk away.”

The woman laughed. But it wavered. Slightly. Just enough.

And all around me...Lyrielle’s dragon growled, Rhaen’s wolf bristled, Lucen hissed, Rykard growled, and Elion’s fox hissed.

We were a fucking storm. They had fucked with the wrong family.

And even in the middle of the chaos, even as my heart pounded, one thing crystallized in my mind.

Mom…Please tell me you’re watching.
_______________________

Elowen POV

The divine realm shimmered around me in spirals of silver and violet, every thread of magic humming at a pitch only I could hear now. It was beautiful, endless, and alive.

And tonight, I hated it.

Because below me, in the mortal realm, everything was going to hell.

I stood in the observatory balcony, the glass floor suspended over the living map of Aetheros, and watched the Great Hall of the academy erupt into screams and shadows. My heart cracked open when I saw Taya on her knees, a blade carved of moon-iron pressed against her throat. My children, my heart, my blood, and my world, were surrounded by traitors, their magic flaring and instincts snarling.

Chaos stirred inside my chest, uneasy and pacing. "Too many shadows. Too much fear. Let me go to them."

“I can’t,” I whispered. My voice was a ghost against the divine wind. “Not yet.”

Lachlan’s hand slid against my back, warm and grounding. “Elowen… lass… they’re strong. They’ll hold.”

But I barely heard him. My breath hitched as the lights flickered in the hall, my babies forming a circle, my Nyxaria at the front, my Lyrielle beside her, both glowing faintly with their dragons pressing at their skin.

Then that woman stepped forward.

A mother, corrupted. A zealot. A coward.

“We will not stand by and watch these royal brats take over Aetheros again...”

I slammed my palm against the divine glass. “Try touching them,” I snarled. “Just fucking try.”

Below me, Nyxaria stepped forward. Brave. Trembling. Burning.

“ENOUGH!” she shouted. Her voice was pure lightning.

And the hall froze.

I felt it in my bones, the way her power surged, uncontrolled but brilliant, her mother’s daughter in every way. Lyrielle’s water-light followed, an echo that soaked the air in shimmering tension.

Chaos whimpered inside me. "They’re scared. Let me go. Let me help."

“I know,” I whispered. “I know they are.”

I wanted to tear a hole in the realm, to fall through the sky and land beside them like a meteor. Every instinct screamed at me to run to them.

Daxon reached for my wrist. “El,” he murmured, his voice breaking, “You can't intervene. Not yet. You’ll tear the planes apart.”

Ashrian’s hand landed on my shoulder, cold shadow against burning skin. “If you go down now, you risk collapsing the veil entirely. The gods were clear.”

Vaelrix’s wings twitched with fury. “But we do not have to sit useless.”

Bram stepped forward, growling. “We watch. We wait. We trust them.”

But I wasn’t calm. I wasn’t patient. I was a mother watching her children facing knives and treachery.

And then...Nyxaria, trembling with fear and fury, whispered something under her breath.

“What would Mom do?”

The words hit me like an arrow. My throat closed. Tears burned hot behind my eyes.

Chaos sobbed inside me. "She needs you. Give her a piece of me. Just a piece. Please."

“I can’t send you through...”

"Not all of me," Elowen. "The voice turned childlike, and pleading. Just a thread. A whisper. A taste."

I hesitated. Selene’s earlier warnings echoed in my skull.

"You are too powerful. You must stay contained. One fracture could destroy the realm."

But the sight of Nyxaria and Lyrielle standing defiantly as fae parents circled them.....of Drayen shifting, his teeth bared, protecting Gisella at his side....of Rowan and Mae and Seren bracing for violence...of the Velmira twins edging in front of my daughters like living shields....

....My heart broke.

“My little flames,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “I’m here. I’m watching.”

Chaos pressed a soft hum against my soul.

"Let me touch them."

I closed my eyes. Just one thread. A single strand of chaos. A whisper nobody else would see.

“Go,” I breathed.

Chaos giggled, delighted. "Wheeeeeeeee."

A thin crack split the divine realm, just a hairline fracture. Moonlight spilled through. And from the crack, Chaos slipped down in a glimmer of violet-green shimmer.

Below, the Great Hall jolted as if lightning struck the floor.

Nyxaria jerked. Lyrielle gasped. And then they both smiled. It was small, but fierce, and terrifying.

Because they could feel her.

Chaos wrapped around them both invisibly, humming like a mischievous child, giddy with the thrill of being free.

Nyxaria’s eyes flashed brilliant violet. Lyrielle’s glow turned ocean-deep blue.

Chaos whispered gleefully into their minds....

"Let’s show this bitch who the boss is, girls."
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This concludes Book 2 of The Aegis War Saga!!!

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